


Homeless in Konoha

by Darkangel19881



Category: Naruto
Genre: Homelessness, M/M, Sexual Abuse, Teen Prostitution, Yaoi, terminal illness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-04 02:31:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12159753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkangel19881/pseuds/Darkangel19881
Summary: Sasuke is badly beaten and left for dead. Itachi believe that Naruto Uzumaki is responsible, only to discover later that Naruto saved Sasuken and has himself been badly abused and is living with the lasting effects of that. Can Itachi give Naruto a home when doing so is risky for everyone? Mentions of Sexual abuse and Prostitution.





	1. Chapter 1

Homeless In Konoha  
Chapter 1

Hearing the sounds of a scuffle, a dirty blonde haired boy stuck his head out the dumpster that he had been rummaging around in, and glanced down towards the entrance of the alley. Naruto frowned when he saw a dark haired teen get slammed roughly against the brick wall. Naruto winced at the resounding sound of the boy’s head meeting the wall. Whoever that kid was, he was in serious trouble. The tall man with the scarf wrapped around his mouth seemed intent on beating the boy to death. Naruto wasn’t sure how but he knew that he had to do something, there was no way that that kid deserved to get his ass handed to him like that.  
Placing his hand on the metal, Naruto lifted himself up, and out f the dumpster. Landing quietly on his feet, Naruto lowered the hood on his dirty, hole eaten jacket. He winced as he heard the sound of a meaty fist slamming into the black haired teen’s stomach. He had to find a way to stop this. He wasn’t sure the kid would survive if he didn’t do something.   
“Hey,” Naruto shouted when he saw the masked man pull a knife out of his back pocket, and flick open the blade. “Get out of here.” Naruto said sounding more brave than he felt. Naruto winced when he heard the sound of the boys head hitting concrete as the masked man dropped him and turned his attention on Naruto. Naruto glanced past the man to see that the kid’s face was badly swollen and bloody. The kid had taken a serious beating. If Naruto hadn’t said something it was likely that masked man would have beaten him to death.   
“Back off street rat. This has nothing to do with you.” the masked man told him. Naruto stared at him, there was something about him that looked familiar but he didn’t know where he knew him from.   
“I can’t do that.” Naruto said, his eyes narrowing. “that kid doesn’t look like he can handle much more. I think beating him while he’s unconscious and can’t defend himself gives you an unfair advantage.” Naruto said managing to slip in between the man and the unconscious teenager. Naruto really didn’t like the wheezing sounds coming from the boy’s lips, it sounded like he had a punctured lung or something. Being dumped in this alley wasn’t going to help his condition either. Naruto was going to have to figure out how to this man to go away. If only Naruto had some change, he could call the police, but with Naruto living on the streets he didn’t have kind of money on him.   
“Why are you protecting this piece of shit.” the masked man asked, his dark eyes narrowing on the dirty kid in front of him. “He deserves to die for what his brother did.”  
“That doesn’t sound very fair to me. Beating him for what his brother done.” Naruto said his eyes not leaving the knife in the other man’s hand.   
“Who said anything about it being fair? His brother killed my lover so I will away the one person that means more to him than anything this world.” The man said. “And if you don’t get out of the way you will be joining him.” Naruto scowled, he might have been homeless but that didn’t mean he was stupid and was going to allow another to be killed so easily.   
“I can’t let you hurt him.” Naruto said scowling.  
“Fine.” the masked man growled, reaching out with his free hand and picking Naruto up by the throat. “From the looks of you, your not getting enough food. If I kill you now I’ll be doing you a favor and putting you out of your misery.” the man raised the knife and slowly brushed it against the soft skin of Naruto’s throat.   
“Then again I wonder if my friend would have some use for you. He’s particularly fond of boys your age.” the man smiled, the look in his eyes sending shivers of fear down Naruto’s spine. He’d seen some crazy people on the streets, but Naruto was certain that this guy was the craziest.  
“What’s wrong with you?” Naruto asked pulled his throat away from the knife. “I’m not a whore to be used by anyone. And I won’t be treated like one.” Naruto didn’t need to be a genius to know that this guy’s friend was into pedophilia.   
“Don’t you want to know what it’s like to have a stomach full of food?” the man asked hearing Naruto’s stomach rumble.   
“I’ll find my own food.” Naruto replied, as he struggled harder to get away from the man. Suddenly Naruto felt the knife slip and cut into his skin right where his shoulder and neck met. He yelped as the man dropped him as he caught sight of the other boy slowly moving around. The man’s foot slammed into the dark haired boy’s ribs sending a resounding crack throughout the alley and causing the boy to cry out in pain and cough up blood, the liquid staining his lips red. Naruto frowned, he didn’t like the sound of pain coming from the others lips.   
“Leave him alone!” Naruto yelled. “Can’t you see that he’s had enough?” Reaching out and grabbing the man’s arm.   
“Back off you little bitch.” the man said swinging his arm back hard enough that it caught Naruto across the chest and flung him into the other alley wall. Naruto yelped when his head collided with the wall. Shaking his head Naruto pushed himself to his feet. He had to distract this guy otherwise the teen would die. Of course considering his condition the teen might still die anyways. Still Naruto couldn’t watch him get murdered.  
As Naruto prepared to jump onto the other man’s back, he heard the sound of feet rushing towards them, and the other man heard it too because he turned towards Naruto and grabbed a hold of Naruto’s arm, and forced Naruto to grab a hold of the knife, before shoving Naruto on top of the barely conscious teenager. Naruto yelped and threw the knife, he knew that if the police found the knife they would come looking for him because his fingerprints would be on the knife. Naruto didn’t want to take the blame for it, like the other man was setting him up to do. He knew that it would only make him look bad if the knife was found with his prints on it.  
“Have fun taking the blame for it.” The masked man said sneering at Naruto as he took off out of the alley, leaving Naruto leaning over the unconscious teen. “I’ll be back to finish you off later. That little twerp will die for what his brother done.”  
Naruto scowled and returned his attention to the gasping boy in front of him. Kneeling, Naruto reached out and turned the boy over so that he wasn’t face down on the ground. He froze as he recognized the boy as Sasuke Uchiha, although how Naruto recognized him with how badly swollen his face was he didn’t know. Nonetheless Naruto recognized the boy that he had gone to school with for a few months. Naruto had run away from his latest foster home two months ago, he hated living with people who acted like they cared about you when the social worker was there, but as soon as the worker was gone they made the younger kids do all the cleaning and cooking. And the older kids the foster parents had a special job for, after school hours the kids were chained up in the basement while friends of the family used them in ways that Naruto didn’t like to think about. After Naruto had been forced to do this a few times, he decided that he was better off on the streets and he had packed his bags and had disappeared. Naruto had tried to keep going to school but he found that it was more than a little difficult to continue. After Naruto had been on the streets for a few weeks the other students started complaining to the teachers that Naruto smelled bad and they didn’t want to work with him. The teachers had told him in front of his entire class that they would be speaking with his foster parents about his hygiene issues and had told him that he needed to go home and bathe before coming back to school. Naruto hadn’t ever been so humiliated in his life and had walked out of the school doors and hadn’t returned. Naruto could remember the teacher telling him that it wasn’t fair to the other students to be around him when he was like that. Naruto thought that the teacher should have told him about it in private instead of telling him in front of the entire class. He had been embarrassed that his teachers hadn’t even been interested in Naruto’s reasons for why he was like that in the first place. If they had bothered to look deeper they would have discovered that Naruto had run away from his foster home and had taken to living on the streets. What really made things worse was after that conversation Sasuke had started called him garbage dump and his classmates had picked it up.   
Shaking his head to clear his own dizziness, Naruto returned his attention to Sasuke. Naruto wondered what it was that Itachi, Sasuke’s older brother, had done to encourage such wrath from the other man. It must have been something really serious to have attacked Sasuke like this. Itachi was a homicide detective with Konoha’s police department. Naruto couldn’t help but wonder if this had anything to do with The Uchiha parents murders a few years ago. Naruto had thought that the case had been closed but then again he’d never heard anything about an arrest being made so he supposed that the case could still be open.   
Frowning, Naruto placed two fingers on Sasuke’s neck, feeling a barely beating pulse. The wheezing sounds were getting worse and Naruto feared Sasuke’s lungs would end up collapsing before help could arrive.  
“Hey, what are you doing? Get away from him!” Naruto was suddenly picked up and slammed back against the alley wall, his head slamming into the concrete again, hard enough to make him see stars. “What did you do to him?” the teen demanded, holding Naruto against the wall while his eyes roved over the unconscious teen’s form.   
“I didn’t do anything.” Naruto said lowering his eyes to the ground, wincing at the tight grip that the boy had on him. Naruto kept his eyes on the ground, he didn’t like to make eye contact with people if he could help it. It was much too easy for someone to recognize him by his bright blue eyes. Naruto really hated it when he did meet someone’s eyes and he saw the pity in them, he couldn’t stand pity and sometimes it was worse when he saw hatred in peoples eyes. Why they hated him he wasn’t sure, but he didn’t like it. Sure, it could have been that he was just another homeless person on the street, begging for the money that they worked so hard to get.  
“What are you doing around him then?” The harsh voice barked at him. “Itachi isn’t going to be pleased about this. I would be gone before he gets here. Although it won’t take him long to find you where ever you choose to hide.”  
“I wanted to make sure that he was okay?” Naruto said, still staring down at the ground as the arm that was holding him released him so that he could give his friend the help that he needed.   
“Did you steal anything from him?” the other teen asked.  
“I don’t steal.” Naruto replied “I never have and I never will.”  
“Sure, you’re a street urchin you steal from the working people just to give yourself something to eat.” the teen growled. Naruto heaved a sigh and looked up at the person trying to take care of Sasuke. It was a brown haired boy about his age with red markings on his face. Naruto quickly recognized the boy as Kiba Inuzuka, Sasuke Uchiha’s best friend and one of Naruto’s least favorite people at Konoha high. Kiba had made sure the entire school was calling Naruto garbage dump by the time that he had left the school. Naruto had hoped to never see Kiba or Sasuke again. Of course just because Naruto didn’t like them, it didn’t mean that he had wanted something like this to happen to him. He just hoped that Sasuke would learn to treat people better if he somehow managed to make it through this mess.   
“Just because I live on the streets doesn’t mean that I steal from people.” Naruto pointed out, no sometimes he had to resort to other activities to help him put food in his stomach, and it wasn’t something that he enjoyed doing either.  
“Whatever!” Kiba snapped, pulling his phone out of his pocket, quickly calling for an ambulance. Knowing that Sasuke would be okay with Kiba there, Naruto headed deeper into the alley, back to where he was comfortable away from people’s stares. And he didn’t want to be around when the police came, he was afraid that they would discover that he was the foster boy that had ran away and would make him go back to them. He could always hope that they had been shut down by now but he doubted that they had been. They would likely get away with what they were doing to the kids for quite a while yet, of course all Naruto had to do was going to the police station and tell them his story, but he didn’t want to go to anymore foster homes. He wanted his own family and he didn’t think that that was too much to ask for.   
Naruto sighed as he reached the dumpster that he’d been digging around in, with the colder weather it was just as easy to sleep in the dumpster with the trash to keep him warm then to sleep behind the dumpster.   
Climbing up the side of the metal bin, Naruto jumped down inside of it, landing with a soft plop. He sighed as he settled in, arranging the bags so that they would block the wind. He raised his hand up to his neck and felt the sticky blood. He really hoped that the injury would stop bleeding on it’s own, he didn’t want to go to the hospital because that would be a nightmare of giant proportions. Just because he had no official address and no insurance to speak of.  
As he lay there he wondered what it would be like to have someone actually care about what happened to you, to care if you were slowly starving on the streets or had a warm place to sleep at night. He wanted a family more than anything, but he wasn’t willing to continue being a bused just to get one. Eventually Naruto’s aching head and general soreness from being tossed around lulled him to sleep.   
“Naruto, good night, I love you. Sleep well.” a kind voice spoke as the red haired woman bends down and presses a gentle kiss to the sleepy blonde boy’s forehead. “I’ll see you in the morning.”   
“Stay with me?” the blonde boy said, “until I go to sleep.”  
“Of course, sweetheart.” The woman said sitting down on the edge of his bed. “I won’t ever leave you. I’ll always be there to protect you and love you, and so will your brother and father.”   
“Good” Naruto murmured closing his eyes, his breathing slowly evening out as he drifted off to sleep.  
Naruto opened his eyes, feeling hotter than he had in a while. Winter was coming to Konoha so he knew that he shouldn’t at all be warm. Normally he woke up freezing, but not this time. This time he was hot and achy and all out miserable. He must have caught some kind of virus or something.   
“He came this way. Some homeless kid was with Sasuke when I found him. I’m betting that homeless kid stole his wallet. He looked like he hadn’t eaten a decent meal in a while.”  
“Why would he come this way, there’s no way out of the alley this way?” another voice asked and Naruto recognized it as Itachi Uchiha.   
“Maybe he lives around here or something. I don’t know.” Kiba answered as he approached the dumpster that Naruto was currently residing in. Suddenly the teen boy’s face filled the opening and he glared down at the homeless boy.  
“Found him.” Kiba snarled reaching in and grabbing Naruto by his collar, and roughly tugging him up from under the bags. “And he smells like shit.” Kiba paused for a moment as he took in the sweaty boy’s blue eyes, that he kept trying to avert from Kiba’s eyes. Naruto knew instantly that he had been recognized.  
“It’s garbage dump Naruto.” Kiba said as Itachi helped Kiba haul him out of the dumpster, dropping him to the ground in front of it. “Who ever thought he actually lived in the garbage.” Naruto kept his eyes on the ground, feeling sick and ashamed.  
“Where’s Sasuke’s wallet?” Itachi asked trying to ignore the dried blood on Naruto’s filthy and torn jacket.  
“I don’t know” Naruto answered. “I didn’t touch it. And I’m not the reason for him getting beaten like that.”  
“I’m sure your not.” Kiba snarled. “it’s not secret that you’ve hated Sasuke for pretty much your entire life. You had ever reason to beat the shit out of him.”  
“But I didn’t.” Naruto mumbled, feverishly, wondering where he’d picked up a virus from. “I wouldn’t do that. How is he by the way?” Naruto wasn’t sure that anything coming out of his mouth was making any sense. He felt sick to his stomach and all he wanted to do was go to sleep.  
“The doctors aren’t sure that he’s going to live.” Itachi growled. “and it’s your fault.”

TBC? Thanks for reading and reviewing! Do I need to add more details or less? Liz


	2. Chapter 2

Homeless In Konoha  
Chapter 2

“What do you mean if he makes it?” Naruto asked. Surely, Sasuke wasn’t that bad off. His feverish mind drifting to the several minutes that the man he had been beating on Sasuke.   
“I’m meaning that Sasuke has a fractured skull, and a bleed on his brain because of the fracture. That also includes the other injuries that include four broken ribs that punctured his lung. Sasuke can’t even breathe on his own right now.” Itachi said staring down at the pitiful creature in front of him. Naruto had gone missing from his foster home a few months ago, one of Itachi’s friends, Deidara, had been assigned the case and the job of finding him. Somehow Naruto had always proved to be hard to find. Now Itachi suspected he knew the reason why. No one would have actually thought that he would be living in a dumpster. And from the looks of him, he could probably use a hospital himself.   
“I didn’t do anything to your brother.” Naruto mumbled. “I couldn’t have. I had to work tonight. I didn’t have time to attack him.” Naruto stared down at his grime covered hands, feeling more confused by the second. Had he worked tonight? He didn’t feel as sore as he usually did after he worked the streets. Why couldn’t he remember what had actually happened? Something told Naruto that he was missing out on something important.   
“Naruto?” Itachi asked seeing the confusion in Naruto’s blue eyes. Clearly the boy was too sick to answer any of Itachi’s questions. While that annoyed him, Itachi could still feel the concern welling up for the fourteen year old boy. Itachi knelt down in front of the filthy, feverish, malnourished boy. He reached out and placed the back of his hand on the teen’s forehead. He didn’t like the heat he felt radiating from him. Neither did he like the way that Naruto flinched away from him and refused to look Itachi in the eyes.   
“Call for an ambulance.” Itachi said turning to the still stunned Kiba. “I don’t think he’s even really aware of what’s going on right now. He’s too sick.” Kiba nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket.   
“He wasn’t like this earlier.” Kiba said.  
“He might have a concussion.” Itachi said sticking a finger in front of Naruto’s face, moving it back and forth to see if Naruto’s eyes would follow his finger. Itachi noticed that Naruto’s eyes did not follow his finger. As Itachi leaned in to get a closer look at Naruto’s pupils, he noticed a bleeding cut on the side of Naruto’s neck. Leaning forward further, Itachi noticed the small wound appeared to be infected. Itachi couldn’t help but wonder how that had happened so quickly, but then he glanced at the dumpster that Naruto had been pulled out of. Who knew what kind of germs were floating around in there, it was a wonder that Naruto hadn’t gotten sick before this had happened. He wondered how Naruto had managed to there for so long, the smell itself couldn’t be pleasant although he suspected that the dumpster did provide some protection against the wind and rain.  
“Don’t touch me.” Naruto said as Itachi started to touch Naruto’s forehead again. “I don’t like being touched.” he mumbled. “it hurts.” Itachi wondered what was hurting the boy. Aside from the obvious, concussion and the cut on his neck, it didn’t look like Naruto was hurt anywhere else.  
“What hurts?” Itachi asked the confused boy. He could feel his anger slowly draining away as he focused on the boy that needed help.   
“Their hands.” Naruto mumbled, staring down at the ground. “Their hands hurt when they fuck me. I don’t like it.” Itachi froze at the words that came out of Naruto’s mouth. Were their really people in Konoha that would sleep with a starving fourteen year old boy? Itachi’s eyes narrowed, he didn’t like the sound of people taking advantage of those in need. He was going to make sure the person in charge of Naruto’s case would hear about this, they would get those creeps off the streets.  
“Did he say what I think he just said?” Kiba asked after he finished talking to the 911 operator.   
“Yes,” Itachi said darkly. “He did.”  
“That’s disgusting.” Kiba said. “If he was that hungry he shouldn’t have left his foster home.” Itachi frowned, he knew that neither Sasuke nor Kiba had really cared for the blonde boy, but he hadn’t considered how deep that dislike went. He wondered why Kiba couldn’t have at least pretended to have a little sympathy for Naruto.   
“You don’t know what kind of life he had with them.” Itachi said. “I can’t imagine that it would have been easy for him to be moved from place to place, and never having a family of his own.”  
“Let’s not forget about his role in Sasuke’s attack.” Kiba said. “he was probably looking for an easy way out of being a whore.”  
“Enough, Kiba.” Itachi said. “I’ll get the answers to my questions when he is well again.” he stood up and backed away from the homeless boy who was stills staring confusedly at his hands. Itachi wondered what had really happened to make Naruto run away from his foster home. Did Naruto not get along with the other foster children? Itachi wasn’t sure but he had the feeling that Naruto would get sent back to that home.  
Hearing the ambulance pull up, Itachi stood by Naruto while Kiba directed the paramedics back to them. Itachi watched as the medics knelt down beside Naruto, who flinched away from their touch.   
“Don’t touch me.” Naruto yowled at them, clearly unhappy with the situation. “Keep your hands off of me.” Itachi watched the boy struggled against the hands that were gently lifting him onto the stretcher.   
“We’re going to have to strap him down.” Rin told her black haired partner grimly. “He’s not going to let us help him.”  
“Who knows what kind of illness’ he’s carrying.” the man said, a sad tone to his voice. “it looks like he’s been out here for a while.”  
“Leave me alone, please!” Naruto begged, anxiety filling his blue eyes, as he turned his feverish eyes to the red haired medic. She swallowed hard as she got Naruto’s wrist strapped to the gurney. She hated when they had to tie anyone down, especially one as young as Naruto. Kami knows what this poor soul had been through. She shook her head and gently wiped at the that had filled the teen’s pretty blue eyes.   
“We’re going to get you fixed up.” Rin told him, trying to ignore the sound of the boy’s sobs. Something or someone had hurt him very badly to make him that afraid of being touched.   
“Come on Rin, let’s get him to the hospital.” her partner Obito said, nodding at his cousin, Itachi who silently watched as they got the sobbing boy loaded into the back of the ambulance. That whole scene only left him with more questions than answers and he didn’t like it. Could this homeless boy really have had anything to do with Sasuke’s attack. Just from what he was seeing, Itachi had his doubts, then again Naruto’s confusion was probably caused by the concussion that Itachi was almost certain that he had.   
“Let me know what happens to him.” Itachi told Obito. “I’m going to go sit with Sasuke and hopefully get my head cleared, and focus on finding Sasuke’s attacker.” Itachi ignored the look that Kiba shot him, Itachi was not certain that Naruto had anything to do with Sasuke’s condition. Itachi had made a lot of enemies in the time that he had been a police officer. It was very possible that someone that Itachi had arrested in the past, was trying to get revenge on Itachi. Though who would go so far as to beat Sasuke nearly to death was still a puzzle. It had to be someone that really hated Itachi, and at the moment, Itachi couldn’t really think of a single person that hated him that much. Itachi sighed he probably let Deidara know that he had found his missing foster kid.   
“Are you going to the hospital?” Itachi asked Kiba who was still looking disturbed by what he had seen.   
“I need to get home.” Kiba said shaking his head no. “But I will be up to the hospital in the morning. He needs to know that he has people rooting for him and waiting for him to wake up.” Itachi nodded he knew that it was hard for the teen to his best friend in such bad shape.   
“For what it’s worth. I hope you find and hang the guy that done this to Sasuke.” Kiba said before shoving his hands into his pockets and heading down the street.   
“You won’t have to worry about that.” Itachi said. “I’ll make sure that he damn well pays.” Even as Itachi headed to the car a sudden thought occurred to him. If Naruto had been the attacker then how had that cut gotten so high up on his shoulder? As far as Itachi knew Sasuke didn’t carry any kind of knife on him, so who had made that cut that was too close to Naruto’s throat for comfort? Could it have been possible that Naruto had been trying to help Sasuke? And that was how he had ended up with the concussion and the cut. Itachi sighed as he slid into his car. He would have to wait until Naruto’s condition improved until he could ask him about what had happened. He wondered too if Sasuke had regained consciousness yet, when Itachi had left earlier Sasuke had still been in surgery to fix the bleed on his brain. Itachi had gotten a call a few hours later that Sasuke was out of surgery and in recovery. However last time Itachi had called to check in on Sasuke he’d been told that he was still unconscious. The doctors had informed him to expect Sasuke to remain unconscious for probably another several hours due to the severity of the head injury. It would take some time for that kind injury to heal.   
Arriving at the hospital, Itachi found a parking spot close to the door. Taking the spot, Itachi shut the car off and sat there for a few minutes trying to gather the courage to get out and go see Sasuke. His brother meant more to him than anything in the world and Itachi hated to see him so badly hurt. Aside from a few cousins, Sasuke was the only family that Itachi had. He didn’t know what he would if he ended up having to bury his little brother. Itachi didn’t even want to imagine it, just the thought made his heart ache.   
Taking a deep breath, Itachi released it slowly. It wasn’t going to do Sasuke any good if he stayed out in the car all night. Opening the door, he slid out of the car, nearly slamming the door behind him. He hated hospitals because it always reminded him of the time the doctors had told him that his parents had died. Itachi had gotten off work early and had gone home to visit with his parents, unknowingly walking into the most horrifying scene he’d ever seen. Itachi could still see their bloody bodies lying on the floor, right at the entrance. For some reason Sasuke had been meant to find their parents only it had ended up being Itachi and for that he was glad. Itachi remembered kneeling in their blood as he checked their pulses, relieved that they had one. It was only after arrived at the hospital that he was told that they hadn’t made it. And now here he was facing that same possibility again and he couldn’t stand the thought.  
“Checking up on your little brother?” a familiar voice asked and Itachi looked up to see Deidara, his blonde haired coworker staring at him.  
“Of course.” Itachi said, following the other man into the hospital and towards the elevators. “What about you?”  
“I got word that my missing foster kid showed up here.” Deidara replied.  
“I don’t think he was exactly brought in willingly.” Itachi said, remembering Naruto’s pained sobs to leave him alone. “he has some serious issues with people touching him.”  
“I’m sure he has his reasons for that.” Deidara replied. “he’s spent his entire life in foster care. We don’t know what he has to live with either.” while Deidara pretended to be tough and hard cop, Itachi knew that he cared about helping people and only wanted what was best for those he reached out to.   
“If the kids are treated so badly, why are the parents even allowed to foster?” Itachi wondered. “One would think that they wouldn’t be allowed to even apply for a license.” Deidara shrugged.  
“I don’t know. I’m only in charge of arresting those that don’t follow the law.” Deidara said, exiting the elevator and following Itachi into Sasuke’s room. The blonde clearly heard Itachi’s sharp intake of air as his eyes landed on the younger Uchiha lying unconscious on the bed. Deidara had known that Sasuke had been badly beaten but he hadn’t expected him to look this bad. Sasuke’s head was wrapped in a bandage while a tube protruded from Sasuke’s mouth helping the teen to breathe. Deidara winced when he looked over the rest of the injuries, Sasuke’s chest was turned a nice shade of dark purple and Deidara knew he had a few broken ribs.   
Deidara watched as Itachi walked over to the bed, and took hand of Sasuke’s unbroken hand. Sasuke’s face was still badly swollen even hours after he had been beaten nearly to death.   
“I’m sorry, Sasuke.” Itachi murmured. “if I was a better brother this could have been avoided. I’m going to catch the person responsible for doing this to you. They won’t get by with it.” Itachi swallowed again and reached out and gently touched Sasuke’s swollen cheek, not liking the dark purple his brother’s skin was turning. If the situation wasn’t so serious Itachi would have thought it funny that his little brother’s face looked like a giant blueberry. “I’m here for you little brother and I’m not going anywhere.”   
“Maybe you should consider taking some time off.” Deidara suggested. “Sasuke’s going to need help with his recovery. You should probably concentrate on that, since it’s going to be a long recovery for him.”   
“That’s if he recovers.” Itachi pointed out. “the doctors aren’t certain that he will pull through. His head injury is pretty serious.”  
“They don’t know everything.” Deidara replied. “He could still pull through.”  
“I certainly hope so” Itachi said giving his friend a grim look that told Deidara that he didn’t really believe it.  
“I’m going to head out and check on my little runaway.” Deidara said. “give me a call if you need anything”  
“What’s going to happen to him?” Itachi asked, unable to get the blue eyes filled with tears out of his eyes. Those eyes should never even feel the touch of a tear on them.   
“He’ll likely get sent back to that family considering the foster situation here.” Deidara said. There weren’t too many people in Konoha willing to open their homes to kids that they knew nothing about.   
“Is it a good idea to send him back there?” Itachi asked. “Surely there was a reason that he ran away from them to begin with.”  
“Maybe.” Deidara said shrugging. “I’ll get him to talk about it one way or the other, even if I have to be rough with him.” Itachi frowned, not liking the idea that Deidara would be rough with the boy. In fact just the idea made him question Deidara’s character. There was no need to be rough with a kid that was hurt.

Thanks for reading and reviewing! I hope you enjoyed it! Liz


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